Boxing
Usyk vs Wilder: A Clash That Could Redefine Boxings 140-Year Lineal Heavyweight Championship
Heavyweight boxing’s lineal championship has survived for more than 140 years, but Oleksandr Usyk’s proposed farewell against Deontay Wilder could leave the historic title facing something more permanent than another vacancy.
From John L. Sullivan through Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Tyson Fury and Usyk, World Boxing News recognizes 40 men as having occupied the position regarded as heavyweight boxing’s ultimate crown.
The principle has always been simple. Beat the man who beat the man and the championship changes hands.
Usyk has vacated his sanctioning body titles and wants Wilder for what he has described as the final fight of his career. If Wilder wins, there is no argument under the traditional lineal principle. He beats the man and becomes the man.
If Usyk wins and retires, boxing could be left trying to rebuild a lineage in a heavyweight division entering an entirely different championship era.
Usyk-Wilder Could Be the End
WBN recently outlined how Wilder could remarkably finish his career as lineal heavyweight champion after appearing close to the end following his brutal knockout defeat to Zhilei Zhang in 2024.
The former WBC champion has never held the lineal crown despite three previous opportunities against Fury. Wilder would become the 41st heavyweight recognized by WBN within a lineage stretching back to Sullivan in 1885.
One right hand against Usyk could change that. A Ukrainian victory creates the more complicated scenario.
Retirements have interrupted the lineage before, but heavyweight boxing has eventually found a way to establish another recognized number one.
This time could be different.
Zuffa Boxing intends to crown its own heavyweight champion, which could even be the Usyk vs Wilder fightand has indicated a willingness to work with boxing’s established sanctioning bodies in some cases. That potentially adds another heavyweight title alongside the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO championships.
The Ring further complicates the picture.
Can Boxing Create Another Lineal Champion?
The Ring championship has increasingly become associated with the lineal concept because its heavyweight champion is generally regarded as the division’s leading fighter.
Usyk leaves little room for argument. He defeated Anthony Joshua twice, beat Fury twice and remains unbeaten as a professional.
But what happens after he leaves?
What happens if The Ring heavyweight championship remains within Zuffa while another fighter outside the promotion unifies the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles? Which fighter would then be recognized as the man capable of restoring the lineal championship?
The lineal championship cannot simply be handed to whoever holds the most belts. Somebody has to establish themselves as the man.
But who gets that recognition if The Ring and the sanctioning bodies recognize two different heavyweight champions for the foreseeable future?
The lineal championship could almost certainly cease to exist as we now know it.
Boxing has solved that problem before.
Following Lewis’s retirement, The Ring crowned Vitali Klitschko heavyweight champion after his victory over Corrie Sanders in 2004, with WBN recognizing Klitschko as the beginning of a new lineage. Wladimir Klitschko later became the division’s dominant champion before Fury defeated him in 2015.
Fury’s victory eventually led to Usyk, who defeated him twice in 2024.
That lineage now rests with Usyk.
A 140-Year Championship Facing Extinction
The lineal title has never required a sanctioning fee, mandatory challenger or physical belt. It exists because one fighter is recognized as the man at the top of the heavyweight division.
Not everybody has accepted that concept.
Eddie Hearn dismissed it when Fury’s status was being debated in 2018.
“The lineal championship doesn’t actually exist,” Hearn said. “It’s a mythical title that people want to use when they don’t have any belts.”
WBN reported Hearn’s argument at the timebut has continued recognizing and documenting heavyweight boxing’s lineage.
Forty men and more than 140 years provide the history behind that position.
The concern after Usyk is whether an increasingly divided sport will still be capable of producing one heavyweight champion widely recognized above all the others.
If Wilder wins, the problem disappears for now. He beats Usyk and takes the lineage with him.
If Usyk wins, retires and boxing’s competing championship structures continue separating the heavyweight division, the lineal crown could become more than vacant.
It could become extinct.
And if nobody can agree who is entitled to bring it back, whether it’s Zuffa, The Ring or the other sanctioning bodies, Hearn’s old argument may finally have its day.
But once it’s gone, did it really exist anyway?
About the Author
Phil Jay is the Editor-in-Chief of World Boxing News (WBN), a BWAA-acknowledged boxing news website founded in 2010. A veteran boxing reporter with 16 years of experience, he has interviewed world champions, broken international exclusives, and reported ringside from major events. His work is published worldwide through WBN and distributed on platforms including Apple News.
Read Phil Jay’s full bio and latest stories.
Gardzielik was dropped and lost every round on all three scorecards. Nmomah offered limited resistance before being stopped in the ninth. Huerta went the distance but lost 100-90, 100-90, and 99-91. Those victories showed Mielnicki can dominate carefully selected opposition. They did not demonstrate that he is prepared for a championship fight.
Top Rank moved Mielnicki methodically by matching him against fighters with attractive records but little recognition in the United States. The approach helped him collect regional belts and climb the sanctioning-body rankings without facing anyone near the top of the middleweight class.
The more revealing performances came against Khalil El Harraz and Connor Coyle. Mielnicki edged El Harraz by majority decision and then struggled to a majority draw with Coyle. The New York State Athletic Commission later changed the Coyle result to a no-contest after he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but the ruling did not erase what happened during those 10 rounds.
Mielnicki believes beating Williams would answer criticism of rankings that place him No. 3 with the WBO, No. 7 with the WBA and WBC, and No. 9 with the IBF.
“I feel like having a name like him on my resume will silence a lotta that,” Mielnicki told Keith Idec of The Ring.
Williams (20-2, 13 KOs) is a considerable upgrade. The physically strong southpaw applies pressure and can make Mielnicki fight while moving backward, an area that the trio was not equipped to test. Mielnicki must show that his footwork and inside game hold up when an opponent closes the distance and refuses to remain at his preferred pace.
Still, beating Williams would not establish Mielnicki as one of the best at 160. Hamzah Sheeraz stopped Williams, and Carlos Adames defeated him decisively over 12 rounds. Williams occupies the middle of the first tier: capable enough to expose a protected contender, but well below the elite.
That makes him an appropriate screening test. A Mielnicki loss in his New Jersey backyard would make his lofty rankings difficult to defend. A convincing win would earn him the opportunity to face the leading middleweights, not prove he is ready to beat them.
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